1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an economy running system, an economy running controller and a navigation apparatus. More particularly, it relates to an economy running system having a function of stopping and restarting an engine in accordance with a state of a vehicle, an economy running controller and a navigation apparatus cooperated with the economy running controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
An economy running system by which an engine is stopped automatically when the engine need not be operated (while a vehicle stops, for example, to wait for a signal to change, to wait for a train to pass or to wait for a person) and by which the engine is restarted automatically when the engine needs to be operated has been recently developed and put into practice in order to reduce fuel expenses and reduce exhaust gas.
The vehicle having such an economy running system is provided with an indicator for indicating execution of automatic stopping and restarting of the engine, that is, execution of economy running to a user (driver etc.) when such economy running is executed, and the indicator for indicating non-execution of economy running to the user when such economy running is not executed. The user can confirm whether economy running is executed or not, by referring to these indicators (e.g. see JP-A-2001-88580).
In the present circumstances, the mechanism of the economy running system has been not correctly recognized yet because the economy running system has been not common to family cars. Generally, the economy running system is recognized as such a system that the engine is stopped automatically when the vehicle is stopped.
When, for example, the engine is to be stopped automatically by actual economy running control while the shift lever is in a D range, the engine can be stopped automatically when all stop conditions including the stopped state of the vehicle (the vehicle speed of 0 km/h), the accelerator off state (the released state of an accelerator pedal), the brake on state (the stepped state of a brake pedal), the non-panic braking (non-sudden braking) state, the state in which electricity stored in a battery used at the time of automatic stopping of the engine is not lower than a predetermined level, and other states are satisfied.
Accordingly, when any one of the stop conditions is unsatisfied in spite of the stopped state of the vehicle (i.e. the vehicle speed of 0 km/h), there arises a phenomenon that the engine cannot be stopped automatically. In the background art, when such a phenomenon occurs, non-execution of economy running is only indicated by the indicator. Accordingly, if the user falsely recognizes that the system should stop the engine automatically when the vehicle is stopped, the user will doubt the reason why the engine is not stopped automatically in spite of the stopped state of the vehicle. Moreover, a fear that the economy running control does not work normally is given to the user. There is a problem that the user may mistake this state for an accident.
There is assumed the case where the user performs a predetermined operation to lead the unsatisfied stop condition into a satisfied condition to stop the engine automatically when such a phenomenon occurs. For example, in the system in which stopping of the engine by sudden braking is recognized as a “panic braking state”, the engine is not stopped automatically even in the case where the vehicle is stopped by sudden braking. In this case, when the shift lever is shifted to a P range and the brake is turned off (the brake pedal is released), the “panic braking state” can be cancelled. By this operation, the engine can be stopped automatically.
It is however impossible to stop the engine automatically by the economy running control if the user does not correctly understand a cause of unsatisfaction of stopping the engine automatically (i.e. the unsatisfied stop condition) and a way to cope with the cause. It is not easy for the general user to correctly understand the plurality of stop conditions and the way to cope with the unsatisfaction of automatic stopping the engine in advance. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to use the functions of the economy running system efficiently.